I’m a stripper turned MMA star… girls say I’m too pretty to fight, but brutal knockouts are a warning to my rivals

MMA star Akonne Wanliss has been told he’s too handsome to fight – but his brutal knockouts prove otherwise.

Wanliss signed contract with European promotion Oktagon MMA and has an 8-2 record in the cage, having started the sport at age 23.

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But over the past decade, he also toured the continent as a stripper before giving it up last year to focus exclusively on MMA.

At the height of his stripping, concerned girls warned Wanliss not to fight, while his rivals used it as armor to mock him.

But the lightweight contender – who returns on Saturday in Prague against Mateusz Legierski – insisted it is as much about substance as style.

He told SunSport: “Girls used to say that all the time!

“But the other thing is guys don’t say, ‘You’re really handsome or you’re really handsome.’ They’d say, ‘You’re just a stripper.’

“I’ve heard it many times in my career, I’ve heard it many times on Oktagon: ‘Oh, you’re just a stripper. He just likes being famous online, he just likes doing YouTube.

“First of all, shouldn’t you promote yourself too? All these guys are just boring. They say, ‘I’m going to let my fight do the talking.’

“Legierski is pretty much the same, maybe he was forced, but he said he was going to take a lightsaber to my head.

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“I know what it’s going to be like, fight week it’s probably going to be a little too much to handle.

“In press conferences I bring my rawness, I release my strength and the moment we step into the cage, probably all you want is to hit me.

“You’re not thinking logically and if he goes in there and all he wants to do is get his hands on me, he’s going to get in a lot of shots and that will be the end of it.”

Wanliss was working as a PT until an old friend from his breakdancing days offered him another career path.

And he would tour the country for over ten years as an artist before focusing all his efforts on MMA.

Now, he returns as part of Oktagon’s €1 million 16-man lightweight tournament in the quarter-finals, having knocked out Sahil Siraj in the first round.

Wanliss – who is in a relationship with OnlyFans star and boxing influencer Daniella Hemsley – already has her eyes on the cash prize.

He said: “It’s something I’ve thought about.

“Of course I’m focused on the fight, but I think about what I can do with the amount of money I’m going to receive, how I can apply it in different areas to invest.

“Anyway, I’m on my toes when it comes to finances. It’s not the first time I’ve been dealing with money and it won’t be the last.”

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